


I Want to Be in Slowtown

by iktwabrokenbone (apiculteur)



Series: Unrelated Star Trek AUs [1]
Category: Bandom, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Alternate Universe - Star Trek Fusion, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-29
Updated: 2014-07-29
Packaged: 2018-02-11 00:14:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2045625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apiculteur/pseuds/iktwabrokenbone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Star Trek AU.</p><p>Tyler is the captain of the USS Slowtown, Josh is his First Officer, and then they get drugged by some weird chemicals on an alien planet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Want to Be in Slowtown

**Author's Note:**

> no prior knowledge of star trek required. based on the original series of star trek, kinda like 'this side of paradise' if youre familiar with the episode.
> 
> you can probably guess what most words mean, but just in case:  
> starfleet - like the military but just exploring space  
> padd - like and ipad but thought up before ipads were a thing  
> class m planet - earth like planet  
> tricorder - hand held science-y device which measures most things  
> biobed - hospital bed (but future-y and space-y)
> 
> title from slowtown by twenty one pilots

Tyler was trying not to be scared. He had met his crew before, had helped to pick the senior officers himself (he had made sure not to show any bias towards the people he knew, but everyone had known Josh would end up being his first officer, one way or another) but it was still terrifying.

He was  _young_. One of the youngest captains, only slightly older than the famous James Kirk had been when he was given his first captaincy. He couldn't help but feel afraid that they wouldn't accept him as their captain, would sneer at him and be insubordinate. Really, he knew they wouldn't, if only to spare their careers, but his fears didn't have to be rational to make his hands shake. In less than an hour, he would be stepping onto the U.S.S. Slowtown, and people would address him as 'Captain', and they would be exploring uncharted star systems, landing on new planets, meeting life forms that no human had ever met before, and he would be the one making the decisions.

Josh stepped up behind him, wearing a science blue shirt. His main duty would be as a first officer, but he would also work as a science officer. "Hey Ty," he said, voice gentle. "It's gonna be cool, right? Captain of your own ship?"

Tyler smiled, only slightly stiffly, and nodded. "It'll be sick," he said. It may be the twenty-third century, but they liked to pretend it was closer to the twenty-first.

"Nervous?" Josh asked, looking concerned.

Tyler wondered about insisting that he was fine, because he was pretty sure captains weren't supposed to be nervous, but Josh was his best friend. He'd know anyway. "Kinda."

"Hey, it'll be fine. I'm your First Officer. I'll be behind you if you need me." Josh grabbed Tyler's hand, squeezing it comfortingly.

Tyler smiled, genuinely now, and Josh let his hand fall.

"C'mon. Everyone will be getting into the ship soon. Let's check it out."

***

Despite the way he'd felt on his first day, Tyler loved it. After only a week, he already felt more comfortable giving out commands. It was amazing; the ship was massive, with a crew of 400 (he was working his way towards remembering all their names, very slowly) and he was becoming friends with his senior officers and bridge crew.

So far, aside from Josh, he was closest with Hayley, the Chief Science Officer, and he couldn't help but like Patrick, the Chief Medical Officer, who apparently already knew their Chief Engineer, Joe. It was nice to have Mark as the navigator, too, to have extra support on the bridge.

Patrick had asked if he could sit next to Tyler, Josh, and Hayley to eat his lunch (starships were remarkably like high school), and they had become friends quickly. Joe had joined them a few minutes after Patrick had, dragging along one of the nurses, Pete, who went between being very quiet and reserved, to telling animated stories, hands waving through the air, and laughing loudly at all of Patrick's jokes. Tyler got the feeling that he was usually closer to the latter, and just hadn't figured out how to act around them just yet.

It took only another two weeks before Pete was not only more extroverted around them, but was also constantly flirting with Patrick. He wondered whether he should say something about relationships between crew members, and how they would have to report it to an admiral, but he didn't want to pass up seeing Patrick blush. Besides, he was pretty sure Patrick didn't know Pete was being serious.

Since they were only a few weeks into their first five year mission, there wasn't much happening. They were travelling in a random direction, charting any new star systems they saw, and not doing much else. There hadn't been any crisis yet, and there want really much to do during bridge duty.

Generally, it was just Tyler sitting in the captain's chair, spinning slightly and messing around on a PADD. Josh was sitting at the science station, filling in while Hayley did something in the lab, looking just as bored as him.

He went onto the ship messaging system that was installed on his PADD- Starfleet had developed it to 'help build stronger bonds between crews', so everyone just used it to talk on slow days.

 _hey_ , he sent.

Josh looked over at him from the science station, smiling.

_theres only another half hour of our shift_

_its too long. cant wait till we get exploring new planets._ Tyler had joined Starfleet because he wanted to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilisations, to boldly go, not because he wanted to sit around and do paper work. He would be happy when they finally got to the exploring part, and when they got shore leave, and he would no longer have to be a responsible captain. He loved it, but he would need a break.

_may be a week or two yet til that happens_

_ew. hang out tonight?_

_yeah_

They spoke for the rest of the shift, and exchanged relieved glances when they entered the turbolift. Other members of the bridge crew were there, so Tyler tried to keep up a professional air instead of whining to Josh. It was only a few seconds before they reached deck five, and Tyler and Josh both got out to head to Tyler's living quarters.

They didn't do much, really, just messed about on the piano Tyler had bought from an antiques store back on earth, and talked quite a lot, sprawled out beside each other on Tyler's bed. At least the bed was big enough to fit the two of them side by side, so when they fell asleep, Josh's head wasn't hanging down to look at Tyler like it had when they had shared a bunk bed in the academy. Josh had woken up with his head purple because of the bunk beds too many times.

***

Tyler was excited, probably more so than was justified, but he didn't care. They had reached a class M planet which the science department had requested to collect samples from. No life forms had been detected, other than the abundant plant life, so he had okayed a small away team to visit, consisting of himself (if Captain Kirk could do it, so could he), Josh, Hayley, and two members of the security team, including the chief, Lieutenant McCoy.

They split into two groups, one with of Josh, Tyler, and Lieutenant Saporta, the other with Hayley and McCoy. Tyler collected samples of whatever Josh told him he should, and Josh took tricorder readings, looking happy and talking about the similarities it had to Earth, the possibilities of colonisation. McCoy stood in the background, on the look out for any threats, phaser in a holster on his hip, set to stun.

It was about fifteen minutes later that they first realised something was wrong. McCoy was standing there, and then, out of context, he  _giggled_. Tyler turned to look at him, curious. "What is it, Lieutenant?" he asked.

McCoy didn't answer, and continued to giggle more. He then dropped to the ground, and started trying to make a snow angel, in the grass. "Josh, is he okay?"

Josh scanned him with the tricorder. "The tricorder isn't picking up any anomalous readings," he said, and looked as though he was about to continue, but then he smiled. "We should probably take him back to the ship, but I just wanna stay here. It's nice here."

And Tyler nodded, because Josh was usually right, and it  _was_  lovely here, like Ohio in a way. He missed Ohio. "Yeah. You're right, J. Let's just sit down and talk. It'll be like Ohio."

And they did. They sat down under a tree next to a stream, and talked.

"You know, Josh, I always thought you were kinda cute. You're just a great guy. You're sick as frick, and you look good," he said, babbling slightly. He was just really happy.

"Yeah. Same here, bro. I have a massive crush in you. I'm like a teenage girl, seriously. You know, why aren't we dating?"

"I'm not sure. But we  _should_  be. We should date."

"We're dating now! I've decided we're dating now. Because that'd be great."

Tyler nodded, because it  _was_  great, and they probably should already be dating. It made sense. "We should date lying down though. 'Cause I'm tired." Tyler wrapped his arms around Josh and pulled him down to the ground, and they lay there, and fell asleep.

***

When he awoke, Tyler was in sickbay. He remembered Josh declaring that they were dating, and remembered fully agreeing with it. Pete walked into the room before he could think much more.

"Sleeping Beauty awakes," he said, walking up to the biobed Tyler lay in. "You got affected by some chemicals released by a plant when you were down on the planet. You'll be fine soon."

"Oh," Tyler said. "Did it have, like, drugs in it?" It must've, or else he wouldn't have said and felt those things quite so openly. Or at all, he corrected himself.

"Yeah. Some weird thing, kinda like alcohol. Just made you a bit more open and free."

"It didn't mess with our minds? Make us do things we wouldn't usually do?"

Pete shrugged. "Not really. Just kinda took away the part of your mind that tells you not to do things, from what I can tell."

"Huh." Tyler was trying not to think about how that meant that Josh wanted to date him, and knew that Tyler felt the same way. If he let himself think too hard, he'd start believing that there could be something more between him and Josh, and that would only upset him when he ended up being wrong.

He got out of sickbay quickly, because the aftereffects if the chemical were no worse than a mild hangover, as Pete had told him.

He managed to go a day without talking to Josh, but there was too much that had to be said for them to stay apart for long. Josh walked into his quarters not long after alpha shift had finished.

He stood awkwardly, belatedly saying, "Hey."

"Hey."

"So... That chemical just made us tell the truth," Josh said. He sounded unsure, and Tyler just wanted them to get past this awkward stage, and go back to being  _TylerandJosh_ , best friends and an amazing command team.

"We can just forget about that," Tyler said, and Josh looked hurt. Tyler didn't want to hope- never wanted to hope, because he couldn't stand it if he got it wrong- but  _maybe_  Josh didn't want to forget. Maybe he wanted to remember, and to so something about it. "If that's what you want." He left it open, for Josh to choose.

"I don't want to forget."

"Would we be allowed to date? I mean, I know relationships are allowed on five year missions, but are they allowed for command teams?"

Josh shrugged. "Kirk and Spock were dating."

"Oh." He had known, of course, but sometimes his mind liked to selectively forget information like that to help fuel his anxieties. "I think I would like to remember, too."

Josh grinned, and Tyler wondered why it had taken a chemical on a planet far away from Earth for them to finally pull themselves together and start dating.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading my self indulgent star trek fusion. comments and kudos would be appreciated.


End file.
